and the loser is…

28 December 2009

If you’re in the 20SB community, you know what time of year it is. It’s voting time for the Bootleg Blogger Awards.

I’m torn when it comes to voting things such as this. As someone who loves to support her friends (such as voting for Mucca Pazza in the Chicago Music Awards), there are some awards that I adamantly avoid. Unfortunately, the Bootleg awards have been one of them. This is my first year to be involved with them, but from joining 20SB they haven’t set right with me.

I do believe we need to recognize those bloggers who are just awesome. We’ve got some freaking awesome people in the 20SB community who are doing phenomenal things. But when it comes to awards, community nominated and given awards… well, I get a little nervous.

The blogging world generally seems to be run by playground politics, in my opinion. Or really, any school related politics, because there is a good handful of it that very reminiscent of high school, and not in a good way. As with any community built on relationships, it’s going to feel like a popularity contest. I know I’ll take some grief for this, but I feel it’s need to be said.

Never did I even dream I would be nominated*. Yes, I do feel like I’m a good writer and a good blogger. But I don’t feel like one of the popular kids. I know that in the blogging world a lot of it is up to chance, and yes playground rules and lunchroom hierarchies sort of run the place… I’m very happy and grateful for what I have. But nevertheless, awards that are mostly popularity contests do sort of get me down.

I’m in no way judging the company I keep or the other nominees. I’m good friends with a good number of them and love them dearly. They deserve the awards they’ve been nominated for. But well, when the same people keep popping up? Again, it’s nothing against them — I just have a hard time thinking this is a good representation of the community.

The only solution to this for more people to get involved in the nominating process. The wider selection of nominees will allow for a grander selection of our community to be recognized. We need to get off the jungle gym and make this change.

*I’m very grateful to be nominated for Best Tumblog for Pink Dinosaurs. I’m honored. It was a complete and utter surprise. Maybe it’s years of doing thankless jobs — stage managing and producing — but I never feel like I’ll win these things.

CONTINUANCE: (8:45a 12.29.09)

It is definitely not my intention to hurt anyone with this post. Blogging is by no means about the recognition. It’s my outlet. Like for so many people, it’s our safe place (or at least, we hope it’s our safe place).

I have personal baggage when it comes to people getting recognition. Yes, I want to be recognized too. A lot of us do. And for me, when I saw the same names over and over, regardless of who they are — and seriously, because the ones I know in person, I really like and truly respect — it just sort of brought up a lot of old feelings of just wanting a pat on the back and a “good job”.

The title of my post has nothing to do with anyone other than myself. The loser I’m referring to is myself. No, I don’t think I’m a loser — I think I’m anything but. Which is, yes, why I’d like a little recognition too. I’m not the only one who feels this way. I know it. I’m being honest with myself right now. It comes from years of feeling like I’ve been looked over. Yes, I have gotten recognition for things. Yes, I have been building up myself, telling myself that I am indeed awesome.

I’m going to ramble myself into a corner. But honestly and truthfully, I have never meant to hurt anyone by my opinion. I still do believe that the bloggers nominated are amazing people and have done a lot to build the 20SB community

My problem is that there should be 2 different categories: “best vlogger” and “best vlogger”. Renee & Ben are 1 hit wonders this year. They got lucky on a video* that wen viral but they are not regular vloggers. Maxie puts up raw footage. Whereas Ashley & I are actual vloggers. There’s a whole different class between those nominated as “best vlogger”. People assume you make a video once, it makes you a vlogger.

Now I am honored to be nominated w/ Ashley. And I can see a cause to have Ben be included in the group. But I honestly believe that there should be 2 separate categories. Vlogger & Vlog, with links to videos that was nominated as best vlog.

im convinced that life is a perpetual high school. it’s either vote for your friends or the people you know. i voted for the blogs i actually read because; they (including you) are the cool kids at my high school 🙂

It makes me sad that something that should have been a celebration of what’s great about our community has turned into something so petty. A line has definitely been drawn, and people on both sides have very hurt feelings.

I completely agree with you that more people need to get involved in the nominating process. I wish more people would get involved, and I wish they would do it without putting down those who already are involved.

Erin – I know for myself and at least one other, we never intended to hurt anyone. When it comes to saying one person or a handful of people are the best, there are always going to be hurt feelings. I do believe people need to be recognized. But I’m guilty myself of not getting involved.

I think next year I’m going to suggest a “Hidden Gem” category, because I’d like to see more blogs that I haven’t heard of much. I don’t wade through the 20sb pool because it’s overwhelming. Sometimes it’s hard to know who wants the traffic and who’s there for the community. Okay, it’s not hard to tell for the most part, but unless someone reaches out to me at this point I’m not really meeting new bloggers. It’s not that I don’t want to be a part of the 20sb community. I love my friends like family, but at the moment the community is a bit overwhelming and I keep feeling like I just get lost in the waves.

I agree that it’s a popularity contest, but I disagree about how to address it. I think 20sb should get rid of these immature awards as opposed to trying to broaden them (in theory it would be nice, but how would it happen?). It’s really just a way of inflating the egos of people who already know they’re “popular.” Maybe this stance is harsh, but these awards are the reason I pretty much became inactive in the 20sb community. It doesn’t represent something I want to associate with because I graduated high school years ago and want to leave that cliquey mentality behind.

Arielle – I don’t necessarily think the awards are a terrible thing. They’re a point of stress that’s for sure, but there are many bloggers out there who deserve recognition. More than the Bootleg Awards could acknowledge. Which is why I want to see a greater variety of people represented in the nominations. But I trust Lisa & D and the rest of the staff — those bloggers did get the votes to get nominated again and again. It’s up to us to change things up.

Honestly, I became inactive in 20SB because of all the people begging for traffic. I’m tempted to unfriend some people because when I do sign in, I hate my inbox getting bombarded with “check out my post/contest” or “vote for me” messages… (Yes, even some of the big-name nominees are guilty of that.. or at least I know one of them is.)

I’ve learned that you only get out of something, as much as you put into it. I’ve been a member of the 20SB community for about 3 years, but I’ve been blogging for close to 8. Honestly, I am not very actively involved in the 20SB community (mainly because I have 3 jobs and I’m trying to grow my own nonprofit organization), but I do follow all of the most well known bloggers like Doni, Rachel, Brandy, Derek, etc., and I do comment on their blogs – not every single post they write, but most of them.

People are always going to feel jealous or threatened by someone else who is seen as “more popular.” Sure, it may be annoying, but if you want to get to their level, then you have to work just as hard as they do (if not harder) as maintaining those friendships/blog-ships, commenting, and welcoming others into the group.

The 20SB community is a great social circle, and it’s something that every 20-something should be a part of.

I think the dialogue that’s getting started is a good thing. So far I only know of Rachel and myself who have written about this issue. We both want to see good things for the community, and we both agree we’ve got some stellar people in 20sb who do indeed deserve recognition. I see this as great potential to continue to make 20sb an absolutely amazing community — more so than it already is. The change is on us.

I know exactly what you’re talking about, and unfortunately, I do agree. It is a lot of politics and popularity. Is that saying that many of those more-popular bloggers aren’t absolutely FABULOUS at what they do? No, not at all. Perhaps that’s why they are so popular in the first place. But it also kind of sucks to look at the list of finalists and see very few people that I nominated, just because their blogs aren’t as popular so they don’t get the same recognition.

Honestly, I don’t think the list should have been dwindled down to so few finalists. Then some less-known bloggers would have made the cut and been able to show people what they are all about. Or, maybe even a list of all those nominated in general should be accessible so if there’s a vlogger out there nobody knows about, we can check it out. Or if there’s a great female blogger, there’s a chance for that person to be known. Instead, like you said, it’s the same people.

I’m involved in 20sb. I stay as active as I can. I vote, I nominate, etc. etc. and yet, personally, it doesn’t seem to get as far as I’d like only because others aren’t as active. That’s a sad twist to this playground.

Hey everybody, I love the dialogue, and I’d like to make a few comments.

First, you’d like more people to be involved in the nomination process? Of the almost 10,000 members we have, only 105 nominated. And not everybody voted for all categories, which means for some, anybody with 2+ nominations became a finalist. (Some categories were more competitive, and people needed 7+ nominations to become finalists, but that still really isn’t THAT many.) I feel like many of the people unhappy with the outcome of the finalist list feel that the issue is systemic, and I disagree. We opened the floor for award category ideas and input, and we totally opened nominations with every member getting one vote. I think that’s as democratic as it gets. If people aren’t voting, or, more specifically, if the people who would have voted for you aren’t voting, that’s not on me and the admin team.

Of course it’s some of the same popular bloggers you see again and again. I admit that sometimes it is a bit like “the rich get richer” (or, the top of the popular just gain in popularity). So maybe you can argue that it is difficult to get into that top spot. But let’s not forget that the popular bloggers gained popularity because they, too, deserved it. The goal with featured blogger of the month is to introduce the community to 12 great bloggers every year. The goal of the bootleggers is to sum up the past 12 months of great blogging. I feel that we are accomplishing these goals.

Also, I just want to say that every web award I can find uses either popular vote (every IP address or email address gets to nominate and vote) or a panel of judges that decides for themselves. The latter system introduces incredible amounts of bias and ignorance (how can a panel be expected to know all 10,000 blogs on our site!). The former is called democracy, and I regret that we have to get pejorative and call it high-school-like because we’re unhappy with the results. Maybe next year we can have the nominations open for longer, and maybe we could encourage people to remind others to nominate using their own blog. We could say we’ll keep it open until we reach 200 nominations, or 500 nominations. I appreciate the discourse on the subject for sure, but let’s keep dissatisfaction with the results separate from dissatisfaction with the system.

I joined 20SB in April. Since then, I’ve tried to be active on the forums daily. I read over 200 blogs, and post at least one entry every day. I’ve emailed, reached out, and tried my best to become part of the community. I nominate and vote and try to “be present” in the community. And what I’ll say for 20SB is that it pays off. I’ve made a lot of new friends, gotten way more exposure to my blog and was nominated for two Bootlegger Awards and January Featured Blogger. When I first joined 20SB, I thought it was a popularity contest and that only the “cool kids” were included. What I’ve found is that the “cool kids” are people who pour time, thought and energy into 20SB and blogging as a whole.

Anyways, I know it can be hurtful and a bummer, but I hope you’ll use this as motivation to get more involved in 20SB! By the way—we’re having a meet up in Chicago TOMORROW. 7 pm at Piece. Come say hey!

I’ve been a member of 20sb for a very long time. This is not my first time experiencing the 20sb bootleg award hoopla- and it’s not the first time that things have turned heated and people have brought up the notion of ‘popular vs. unpopular bloggers’. This is not the first time that an internet award has resulted on hurt feelings- or at least unhappy ones, on both sides (those nominated and those not).

As someone who has been nominated more than once, I understand what some people are saying about their feelings getting hurt. To feel so good about your writing being recognized and then turn on twitter and read comments like “She’s not even currently writing, how can she be nominated?” or “I know she’s a “good” writer, but (insert name of another blogger) is a better writer”, it definitely stings.

But on the other side of it, I can see how those not nominated could be frustrated. It’s hard when you are first starting out and you feel like your writing is on par with those receiving heaps of recognition. Or maybe you aren’t first starting out, but you are new to 20sb- or not active in the community. I truly see how that could be hard. My thoughts? You have to be active. You have to get involved. You have to realize that you can have the best blog in the world but if no one knows about it, there’s no way you are going to be nominated for anything.

When I started blogging (yes, I’m going there. Next I will be talking about when I used to walk to school), I didn’t comment on other people’s blogs. I assumed that the writing on mine would stand up for itself, that people would just stumble across it, realize my genius (and modesty) and become hooked. Of course that didn’t happen. I had to get out there, make my blog known, find blogs that I loved, get the word out about my blog and be confident about it. I think the 20something awards are similar in a lot of ways.

You may disagree that those nominated don’t deserve it (I would argue that- being an avid reader of 95% of the blogs nominated- I have to say they are some of the best I know), but you cannot argue that they are hidden diamonds in the rough. They are bloggers who work 365 days a year to get their blogs out there, who are the first to leave comments, show support, join 20sb forums, participate in debates and vlogs. They are bloggers who do not demand attention (or support), but receive it because they are so active in the blogging community. Such bloggers are going to be more widely known because of their continued activity, and are therefore more likely to receive more votes towards being nominated.

I read yesterday on twitter that the bootlegs have turned into ‘just friends voting for friends’. I could see how that could look, but people forget- each person only gets one vote. And with a group of almost 10,000- anyone could be nominated, anyone could win. The only way things will change is if the people who don’t like what they see, become more active in the community, in the process. I really hope that happens next year, I’d love to see what 10,000 active and engaged members could do together.

On Sunday, I emailed two dozen of my closest blogger friends a post about my hot awesome dude possibly having cancer. I asked them to post it for me, if they could or tweet about it, to spread the word and get people thinking positive. In two days, I’ve had over a 100 strangers email me- some offering words of support- some giving me direct instructions on what I should do if it is cancer, including referrals to the best doctors in the states. I’ve had over 120 links to my blog from complete strangers and have had an additional 5,000 visitors. Because people will do what you say, will band together and will show that their intentions are good if you put yourself out there and tell them what you need. So if you want to be nominated (not you rini- I know you did, congratulations!), you have to be active, be out there and say that you want it. And if you are? I think it will happen.

Sorry for writing a novel. If there was an award for most loquacious commenter, I’d win it in a landslide.

I’m kind of with Kate… I suppose I see your point, but the fact of that matter is, I’m not really active on 20SB. If there is a 20SB clique, I’m not part of it.

I’m active in the blogosphere, everywhere. And I work hard- really, REALLY hard at it. Because sure, it is an outlet, but I’m also trying to build something, be it a network of friends around the world, an in-detail and fun record of these years of my life, and hopefully someday, a pool to draw upon when I launch a business venture I’ve got cooking in the brain.

So, while I see your point, and I understand where you’re coming from… I guess it just kind of smarts, because I do think you get back what you put in… and I put a helluva lot in, IMHO.

I have to say I agree with you even though I read most of these blogs that have been nominated and was kind of disappointed when I saw who the nominations were because I was hoping to see new names/faces. Not that I don’t think these finalists don’t deserve it – they do. Of course this was bound to happen – I mean…this kind of thing happens everywhere. Feelings are always hurt especially when it comes to awards or nominations.

i’m glad i’m not the only one that feels like the 20sb community can be a popularity contest and a lot like high school. i also agree that everyone nominated deserves to be there. one last thought, you are pretty awesome for putting this post out there.

I love the way you put this- I was nominated last year and was so excited, and then bombed all the categories I was nominated in (except for design, which I paid someone for…yaaaaay lol). I really like 20SB as one tool of many for bloggers to use- it’s a great pool of people in our demographic who are potentially interested in the same things.

I think that what bothers me sometimes is that people complain about it being a closed system and a popularity contest (I don’t think you’re doing that, I think you’re very eloquent!) but if it’s such a closed system (which I do agree with) then what people over look is that it’s easy to work.

Almost no one nominates bloggers regularly for the monthly awards, so put the few people who do on your blog roll and start making friends with them. If you’re talented and write regularly, just make friends with people who will vocally support you. Every now and then, speak up really vocally in the forums on something that you fee strongly about. It’s not rocket science & it’s not perfect, but it’s certainly not exclusive.

I like how you’ve put it, and I really like that 20SB is an opt in thing that’s not really that defining outside of its walls. It’s a great jumping off point but not the be all and end all, for me at least.

This is a really great discussion going on here. Like a lot of people, I was a little put off by the recurrence of the same four or five names in multiple categories. But I also wasn’t surprised, partially because I know I nominated those same people for a category or two myself. I don’t think there’s much more I can say that hasn’t been said: the 20SB community is what you put into it (after all, I don’t make enough effort around there, and I think that if I had, I might have been nominated for something). The popular people are getting recognized not BECAUSE they’re popular, in my opinion, but because they are GOOD, and they take the time to be involved. That’s not to say that other people aren’t trying just as hard to be involved… I think it really takes time to establish yourself.

Anyway, thank you for sharing your thoughts on this! (And thanks to LiLu for tweeting the link; otherwise I never would’ve seen it.)

105 votes is pathetic.
To me it just seemed like I was arbitrarily assigning one of the same 5 people in many categories. Maybe a limit of categories one can be nominated to?

Even with more votes, the outcome would have been the same. You vote for the people you see the most… the active tweeters and FBers promoting their daily blog shamelessly.

Also, the voting process was rather difficult having to navigate through the 20sb site getting links to everyone’s page. If I had limited time, I’d say screw that and move on to something less time consuming. I did vote but I only voted for a few categories because I simply didn’t have someone on my mind for other categories.

I also think that the categories could be laid out better – rather than who is the awesomest?, who has the best photography in their blog? and other specific things that people may have come across. I know there was some of this, but if the majority looked for unique qualities, the outcome would have been quite different.

I canceled my membership to 20sb six months ago. It had everything to do with my personal feelings about the community and nothing to do with the community itself or the “popular kids”. I just want to remind you that those “popular kids” invest an unreal amount of personal time and effort maintaining the community.

I didn’t not enjoy any popularity in the 20sb community. I was never a featured blogger, and I was never very active on the forums. What 20sb did for me was introduce me to some incredible people, many of whom appear on the nomination list and several who don’t and probably never will.

In situations where I have enjoyed status and popularity, I have been the target of resentment, jealousy and a victim mentality. A girl I used to work with once told me that my friends and I were intimidating, exclusive, that we stroll through the office like something out of Sex and the City, and that our walls were impenetrable- no one else could get in. What she failed to see was that the girls I was walking arm in arm with- this group of ours that was always in the middle of everything- we were the ones willing to meet for brunch on a saturday and run company errands to prepare for events. We were the ones who worked for weeks on our halloween costumes for the company contest. We were the ones who pandered to upper management for more budget funds for employee events. Anyone that was willing to roll up their sleeves and contribute their own blood, sweat and tears- and also really get to know us instead of simply looking for weaknesses and dirty laundry in order to resolve their feelings of inferiority would have been a welcome member of our clique. Sadly, most people chose to make high school references instead.

I don’t mean to belittle anyone’s hurt feelings- my feelings have been deeply hurt, and i feel your pain. I just wish that more people would look inside themselves, and try to view these awards, at least in part, as a reflection of their personal effort in being an involved member of the community.

The nominees are not snobs. They aren’t the cheerleaders and football players that wouldn’t let you sit at their table in the lunchroom. They are incredibly busy and dynamic people, and I can promise you- I know this from experience- that if you take your tray to their table, smile sweetly, and ask them to make room, they will. And if you take it a step further and get to know them and get involved in their projects, there will always be a place for you at that table. You just have to remember that because they are so dynamic and busy, they often won’t think to invite you to sit down. Not because you’re not cool enough, but because they’re consumed by whatever their next big project is.

Good post and points. I was surprised by my nomination this year as although I read a lot of blogs I am far from one of the ‘popular’ bloggers and am would not be wearing pink on Wednesdays in the highschool of 20SB. That being said many of the blogs that were nominated are the “cool kids” but then again they are usually the bloggers that post a lot, comment back, read a lot of blogs, make themselves heard and have audiences that relate and noone can be faulted for that.

This post nails it. For me the voting/awards has pretty much soured blogging for me because I’m tired of the pandering. I come here to read people’s stories. If I like what I read, I will leave a comment and make a mental note to return. I started blogging to improve my writing skills, not to create a clique. Something did happen though and I made some tremendous friends where I least expected it.

Anyways, I’m rambling and think you’re right on the money here. Blog for yourself and don’t worry about those silly awards.

Again: I have absolutely nothing again those who were nominated. They are awesome people. I will say it again and again. And Again and Again…

I just want to open dialogue up for how we can continue to improve 20SB and make it even more amazing. I want to encourage others as well as myself to be more active in the community. I want us to spend more time recognizing as many bloggers as we can — not just during the awards. To just randomly, on a Tuesday say “Hey, this blog/person is awesome, and I just want to share that with you.”

Great discussion, like the one over at Maxie’s and Rachel’s blog. I am really glad VeryBadCat said what she said, because she’s an original 20SBer who I’ve met personally and found to be incredibly insightful when it comes to interpreting the way online communities behave.

We’re still in our infancy at 20SB, and we have growing pains. There’s no question that every nominee puts blood, sweat, and tears into being an active member of their community. I don’t think a single Finalist knew one another prior to 20SB and I’d guess nearly everyone on the list has met at least another Finalist. In most cases that included flights across the country. Hell, Lisa even took a flight to Chicago to work on 20SB with me on the way home from Africa.

Rest assured, 2010 will be focused on uncovering our community. We are a community of ‘new’ members, and we’ll focus on that so more bloggers can shine.

Never forget though, that 20SB is a product of the community. We work behind the scenes to enable discovery, but we can’t make you participate. We even give free stuff away, introduce companies to you, and organize events like Vlog Day, Carnivals, Swaps, and the rest.

If nothing else, I will offer this: our ‘most active community’ is in the 250 range, and growing as we grow. Out of 10K people. More than that will Vote in the awards, half of that nominated.

Even so, those Finalists (to my knowledge) represent people who’ve put in the time and effort to build organic-ish reader communities. They take it offline. They create blog events on their own.

I would suggest that they DON’T spam you repeatedly to go read their blog.

I don’t think I would have stumbled across your blog without this post so even with the controversy it’s created, I’m glad that it’s here.

Your post spoke to me in a multitude of ways, but the responses that were generated from it spoke even louder. I refuse to live my life as if I’m in high school. I don’t know how many times that was brought up. But I hated high school. And I’m not going to hate my life. I never felt the need to fit in then so why would I now?

I’m not going to add much else about this subject because t I actually came here to tell you I love your blog and am glad I found it. I’ll definitely be back. 🙂

So…uh…hey. I don’t want to really weigh in on the discussion because there are people who are expressing all the points I could come up (from both sides – believe me, this is one of those things where we all need to come together for a better approach in the future) with much better than I care to at the moment. Just want to give a friendly reminder that it’s a little off-putting to see specific names (cough ahem cough cough ahem) brought into the equation in terms of the nominations. This whole scenario is rough enough as is…

I’d like to clarify my above comment for anyone who sees it. I don’t mean my post in a mean spirited way and i’m not directing it at rini– just anyone who has their doubts I guess. A view from the other side.

I also want to thank LiLu, Lovely, Jennifer, and Erin for reaching out to me personally as well.

I’ve really appreciated everyone’s who’s been commenting thus far!
At this point I think we all can agree that 20sb has been built up on a bedrock of truly awesome people. They have poured so much of their heart not only into their own blogs and relationships but also into the making 20sb the amazing place it is now and are continuing to shape into a fricking awesome place.
20sb is still learning and still growing. Just like we are in our own lives making this transition, so is our community. We have people doing phenomenal things and there is infinite possibilities laid in store for us for our future. But we have to be active in the community. As I mentioned, I myself am guilty of complacency (which is a good part of why I was so shocked to be nominated). Though it can be intimating, more of us need to step up and be active members of the community. As MinD has pointed out, yes sometimes it feels that you put so much in but still don’t see the results. We had a pathetic number of people involved in the nominating process — and I think seeing that should really inspire us to step up. I’m still not saying that the nominees didn’t deserve their recognition because they surely do! They worked hard to be where they are.

I stand by my statement that we need to spend more time, regardless of award time or not, and just recognize those around us who are doing great things, who are great writers, and who are just genuinely great people. 20sb is such an amazing place already — as Brandy pointed out the love and compassion that can come when you ask for help can be overwhelming — I can’t wait to see what will happen and what can happen when even more people decide to step up and really own it.

Hey girl…so everything has been said that I would say on either “side”…but I just want to commend you for staying true to yourself and posting something that might be controversial. I’m good friends with Lilu and Maxie and love their blogs and them as people, and I always love to see them get recognized. But I appreciate honest writing and people keeping it real on their blogs. So anyway, nice to “meet” you.

As a former *very* active blogger who was very vested in the community, but got burned out– this whole post speaks a lot to me. I got really swept up in the blogging world, was nominated for several of these awards in question, and met/got in contact with some seriously amazing people– including several of the nominees. But somewhere along the way, it got too much– the hours and hours spent reading other people’s blogs, the guilt when I didn’t have time or missed out on a serious post, the sting of comments dropping spontaneously, people stopping writing in more than 140 characters, people I thought were my real friends stopping being in contact, or my emotionally draining posts feeling ignored. In other words, I forgot the reason I started writing to begin with, and I needed to stop blogging completely to get back to that.

Now I’m trying again… and this whole drama reminds me of how far we get from writing sometimes. That can be a good thing (look at all the support for Brandy that came about these past few days) or a bad thing.

Saw lilu’s tweet regarding this post. I was nominated for best guest blogger, woo-hoo!!!
I have a very very small following compared to some other blogs and I’ve never been featured as a monthly blogger at 20sb, I don’t “run” or “hang” or “friend” any of the popular 20sb people (although their blogs are pretty damn cool) so I was super confused to see my name as a finalist.

I do however comment fairly often on my followers blogs, I am a semi active 20sb member, and I try to blog consistently. Recognition is always fantastic to recieve, but I certainly don’t blog to get awards. The 20sb awards are really cool and I like the democratic system. My little blog got nominated for crying out loud!!! As fir the “popular” 20sb members gettin more than a few nom’s I think it’s awsome and well deserved.

I used to be a lot more active in the blogging community and since I’ve sort of tapered off in the past 10-12 months, I’ve noticed a change in my readership and that some of the people who used to come by a lot don’t anymore. Some who used to have me on their blogrolls have taken me off, even though I still post FAIRLY regularly. Then I remember that this has all been happening over the course of YEARS, not minutes like it seems, and it makes more sense. Boo, but we all change. I wasn’t popular in high school anyway, so I’m used to this.

I’m one of the guilty who saw the tweets about 20SB nominations and thought “huh, I should do that” and never did. So I am officially not allowed to complain about the lack of diversity in the final nominees. At first I was surprised to see so few names on there, but then I wasn’t actually – cause I could have said something and I didn’t.

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